A new bill is set to grant the Finnish Border Guard additional powers and jurisdiction for use in hybrid warfare. Shooting down drones, bugging suspects and blocking mobile networks are all ways of combating so-called 'little green men'.

The Finnish Border Guard may get powers to fight international hybrid warfare, illegal immigration and people smuggling if a new bill goes through parliament. If the proposal becomes law, border guards will be authorised to employ the same assault tactics as police at border crossing stations, including use of military force.

The measures are intended to improve the Border Guard's defense capabilities against serious incidents at the border such as hostage situations or IT systems failure.

The Border Guard's legal chief of staff Ari-Pekka Koivisto says that the Crimean crisis involving "little green men" or unmarked foreign combatants was also a wake-up call for the organisation monitoring Finland's frontiers.

Border guards would essentially hold down the fort until the police arrive, should a serious incident take place.

"Hybrid threats typically escalate very quickly and are difficult to anticipate," says deputy commander Jaakko Olli from the South-East Finland Border Guard. "These new powers will allow us to react to situations quicker and more effectively, even in everyday conditions."

Under the new law-to-be the guards' jurisdiction would extend some hundreds of metres from border crossing points and other Border Guard assets.

Jamming mobile networks

The proposal includes giving the Border Guard the right to utilise covert information gathering techniques. One of the central means of acquiring info is tapping into mobile phone network base stations located near border crossing points.

Jamming signals is part of hybrid warfare. Image: Kare Lehtonen/Yle

"In a hostage scenario it is important that we gain data on who and what to expect before we charge in," Koivisto says.

Guards could also use audio-visual monitoring to learn more about tactically significant areas. Sometimes mobile telecommunication networks can be silenced using jammers, which would make it harder for "little green men" to coordinate their missions.

"Shutting down teleoperations in an assault situation is a matter of Border Guard staff security," says Koivisto. "People trying to covertly circumvent our standard measures may use telecommunication channels that aren't connected to any specific teleoperator."

Only the Finnish authorities' encrypted Virve network would remain unaffected by jammers. Decisions to jam frequencies could also be authorised after the fact.

Drones, soldiers, transport

The Border Guard would also closely monitor the airspace along the border. Crisis powers would include the right to incapacitate low-flying drones and other unmanned aircraft using live rounds, in an effort to prevent spying.

Border staff would also receive technology to locate and take control of drones.

One of the more conspicuous changes, if the bill were passed, would be that military conscripts could be used as backup. Only Border Guard-trained conscripts and students at the Border and Coast Guard Academy have so far been eligible as crisis support; that would change if the law were passed, as the Defense Forces could also send in the cavalry if needed.

The conscripts' tasks would be more carefully defined under the new system.

"Conscripts would mostly do routine work such as traffic control, monitoring individuals or conducting simple security checks," Koivisto says.

In addition, shipping companies, airlines and railway operators would have more responsibility should Finland decide to check the passports of people travelling to or from Estonia and Sweden, for instance. Passenger manifests would have to be delivered to the Border Guard in advance.

Any transport company that, knowingly or not, lets in a person with insufficient paperwork would be fined 3,000 euros for the error. The same company would also be responsible for repatriating the person(s) in question.

The bill will be discussed by Parliament in the autumn, and will come into effect in spring 2018 if passed.

The coach of a sports club in Hyvinkää, southern Finland has been remanded into police custody on suspicion of sexual abuse of minors he was coaching, the Itä-Uusimaa police department said on Thursday. Officials said that they are investigating the case as suspected child abuse but did not disclose the ages of the alleged victims. The suspect in the case, a 50-year-old man, was remanded into custody on Wednesday. The suspected sexual abuse is believed to...

Finns increasingly forego do-it-yourself construction of prefab elements in favour of completely completed homes. Turnkey homes (where homes are fully finished and owners can immediately occupy them) have become more popular than traditional house packages, says the Finnish Association for Manufacturers of Prefabricated Houses. “About 7,500 detached homes are built in Finland every year, and about 70 percent of them are prefabricated houses of some kind,”...

THE FESTIVE ATMOSPHERE in the Helsinki neighbourhood of Arabianranta was visibly subdued on Tuesday, as residents mourned the death of a local child who is believed to have been murdered. While little information has been released to the public, it is known that the victim was murdered near their home on the night of Christmas Eve (December 24). The police apprehended a suspect at the scene of the crime, who has been confirmed as a 36-year old male. Whethe...

One of Finland’s most famous seafaring vessels, the titanic icebreaker Otso, was deployed on its first mission of the winter season last night, keeping sea routes open for the 22nd year in a row. Late in the evening of Christmas Day, Otso, the crowning glory of Arctia Oy’s extensive fleet, departed from Helsinki’s Katajanokka Harbour, heading north to the Bay of Bothnia. The 7000-ton Polar icebreaker has been tasked with keeping waterways open between Oulu...

Eight Finnish political parties have published their a statement on future climate policy goals in Finland. Prime Minister Juha Sipilä (Centre) in November invited all nine parliamentary parties to join a task force established to find an agreement on new, more ambitious climate goals for Finland. The one-month project was led by Kimmo Tiilikainen (Centre), the Minister of the Environment, Energy and Housing. The Finns Party abandoned the task force last w...

A 25-year-old man suspected of the sexual abuse of a girl under the age of 15 in Oulu, northwestern Finland, who was arrested in Germany last Tuesday is now reported to be at large. According to law enforcement officials in Oulu, the suspect was released by German police before he could be transferred to Finnish custody due to "a breakdown in communication between authorities". Oulu District Court ordered the suspect to be reprimanded into custody in absen...

Finland’s high earners saw their real income grow more in 2017 than their peers in middle and low income groups, according to new data released by Statistics Finland on Tuesday. Incomes among the country’s highest income decile rose by 4.4 percent in 2017 compared to 2016, while the year-on-year increase was 1.3 percent for middle income earners. Incomes for the four lowest income deciles meanwhile grew by 1.2 percent over the one-year period. However amon...

A man wanted in connection with a suspected arson attempt on a home in Helsinki’s Käpylä district was remanded into police custody on Sunday. The Helsinki district court has remanded a man suspected of attempted arson and attempted murder into police custody, ending a short-lived manhunt, police said on Sunday. The 25 year-old is suspected of using a Molotov cocktail to cause a fire at a flat in Käpylä, Helsinki last Monday. The apartment was completely de...

Helsinki Central Library Oodi will opened its doors to the public on 5 December at 8am, a day before Finland’s 101st birthday. Designed by ALA Architects, this library of a new era is an ode to Finnish culture, equality and freedom of expression. Oodi offers everyone an open, public urban space at Kansalaistori Square, right opposite Parliament House. Central Library Oodi is an active and functional meeting point with 2.5 million expected annual visitors....